Sub Zero
by solongandthanksforallthefish
Summary: With many disagreements and arguments, the crew of the USS Seawolf were the model of a dysfunctional crew. But what happens when these squabbles turn deadly, and can NCIS solve this case before the fights escalate once more? Case fic
1. Chapter 1

**Hello I'm back.**

**So this is my latest story Sub Zero, I'm also writing another one which will be put up at the conclusion of this one. Please forgive me for any inaccuracies, I have done lot of research on US submarines and life on a sub but there's only so much you can find out.**

**Please review, tell me what you think of the story, constructive criticism, a simple hello, all is welcome. I'm going to do a thing with this story. In your review, include a random word such as 'Platypus' or 'bubble' and I will try and slip it into the next chapter. Just a bit of audience participation to keep this story interesting.**

**Right, that's all from me, please enjoy **

Fists flew as an intense brawl in the heart of the USS Seawolf continued into its second minute. The explosion of anger was overdue as tensions between the crew had been at breaking point for almost a week now. Every ship and every crew had its flaws, that were the nature of the business, on every submarine there were fights and drinking, but nothing compared to this. No crew was perfect, and it was only as strong as its weakest link. However the crew if the Submarine Seawolf seemed to have many, many chicks in their chain; between disagreements, rivalry's, grudges and differences, the submarine Seawolf was practically the model of a dysfunctional crew.

The fight continued to rage in the cramped and claustrophobic hallways of the sub. Twenty five, maybe thirty sailors were involved in this particular brawl, each venting their anger on others with hard hitting punches and kicks. At least one man was already out on the floor after hitting his head on a low lying pipe, quite possibly not accidently.

Between one pair in particular, the fighting was particularly fierce, one had a black eye, and the other a heavily bleeding broken nose. It was between these two that a passing remark had become a heated exchange, and then a full blown, all in brawl.

This was of course the second such brawl on the USS Seawolf since it left port, only three weeks ago.

Soon enough, the CO and his officers arrived to break it up. And the Commander in particular, was less than impressed.

"That's it!" He shouted "I've had quite enough of this! I don't care about the mission; I am turning this submarine around and heading straight for the nearest port this instant! I am retracting your official warnings and reporting you all for insubordinate conduct. Now clear off and get back to work, and if I hear so much as a peep out of anyone of you, I'll throw you overboard! No go!" Commander Sharp shook his head and left, mumbling to himself angrily.

Nick McCormack took a deep breath to steady himself but it got stuck in his throat and turned instead into a bought of coughing, he leaned back against the wall behind him. His good friend, Steven Locks offered him a hanky to stem the flow of his still heavily bleeding broken nose, McCormack took it gratefully and dabbed it gingerly on his nose.

"I'll get that bastard one day" he said short of breath and through gritted teeth. Using his free hand to grip his chest.

"He's just egging you on. Char would never go near someone like him; you shouldn't have started a fight… again. Seriously mate, learn from your mistakes, half the ships going to be court-martialed all cause of you."

"Yeah, _'you shouldn't have started a fight'_ " Nick mocked, taking a few shallow breaths "Says the man who single handily took on…" another pause for breath "three cooks and knocked out some Sonar Officer. You can't talk."

"Loyalty in friendship" Locks replied proudly, putting his hand on his friends shoulder. "Now you've gone and gotten yourself an asthma Attack, gees, let's get you to Hunter aye?" he suggested, offering his hand to help him up to his feet, As soon as Nick was standing he put his arm around Locks shoulders to help himself walk as he was struggling to remain upright. "Now, now" Locks laughed "Not too fast, we don't want you getting anymore hurt little princess. What's wrong? Scared you might chip a nail?"

McCormack punched him in the arm "Shut up… and help… you big, blonde oaf…"

When McCormack and Locks finally arrived in the bay, the Medic, Adam Hunter's face dropped in disappointment. He knew what had happened, he'd seen it all before, Hunter hated violence, and he hated seeing his crew torn apart by hatred like this. Just over a week ago in the aftermath of the previous fight, Hunter had pleaded McCormack to tred lightly, especially when around Tucker, but evidently his pleas had fallen on deaf ears.

He directed the pair to sit down on the bottom bunk and prepared some towels and an asthma ventilator, or a nebulizer.

"You just don't listen do you?" he sighed, giving the towels to McCormack to replace the now blood soaked hankie. Laying McCormack back onto the bed, Hunter placed the mask of the ventilator tentatively and turned it on. "It's going to hurt your nose but deal with it, suck it up, This is what you get for fighting you know. Deep breaths, it should help."

There was the thudding and echo of running footsteps approaching and bouncing of the narrow corridors of the submarine, and Officer Martin Tully poked his head through the door with great haste. "Hunter, you, with me now, you two Locks"

"No, I can't leave McCormack, It's against protocol" Hunter replied.

"Look" Tully said firmly "Foster fell and broke his arm, Wilson dislocated his shoulder and McGregor's out cold. We need you, don't worry about McCormack, he'll be fine."

"We can't leave Nick, not with a bleeding nose and asthma, he could choke." Locks argued.

Tully shook his head "Hunter…" he warned

"Guys, I'll be fine!"

Hunter mulled it over in his head, carefully considering his options. "Fine, fine, let's go" he replied and Hunter and Locks followed Tully out to help the other injured, leaving Nick McCormack alone in the medic bay.

McCormack was still struggling for breath; each was shallower than the last, even with the help of the ventilator. But he wasn't going to admit that, not with Locks standing there ready to take the mickey out of him for being weak. The mask was precariously balanced on his face to avoid his nose or the towels around it, but yet no matter where or how he placed it on his face, it hurt his nose like hell, yet another thing Locks would pay him out about if he was here. His breathing continued to get shorter and shallower and he began to doubt that the ventilator was making any difference at all. In fact, he was becoming light headed; a result of what he assumed was a mixture of blood loss and breathing difficulties. More and more he was feeling dizzier and fainter, and he hoped that the benefits on the ventilator would kick in soon. And slowly but surely, Nick McCormack slipped out of consciousness and everything went black.

Steven Locks was a big man. Not big as in fat, but tall and muscular, 6 foot 4 to be precise. While being the size he was had some advantages and disadvantages, for example he was good at basketball; there was one big disadvantage which he had found quite irritating recently. While his other crewmates on the USS Seawolf could dart this way down one corridor and run then run down another, sprinting from one part of the sub to the other to get the job done in time, Locks himself could not navigate the sub at more than a slow jog, as even at walking pace he would regularly hit his head on the overhead pipes. One advantage of his build however, and the reason Tully had dragged him along, was he was well suited to carrying the weight of another, full grown man.

He followed Hunter back to the Medic bay. Hunter, in front of him was assisting Foster while trying to make sure the makeshift splint on his broken arm stayed in place. Tully behind him was helping Wilson, who was still putting on a brave face after having his shoulder popped back into place. At the moment the only thing on his mind was painkillers.

This left Locks in the middle carrying the unconscious body of Sonar Officer Andrew McGregor, who in an interesting twist of Irony had been the very sonar Officer that Locks had knocked unconscious by slamming their head into a low hanging pipe just a few minutes ago. As he ducked and weaved through the maze of crapped corridors and low ceilings, Locks tried his best not the injure McGregor any further, however his effort failed to stop him from accidently slamming into the back of a door. Though avoiding injury was hard for Locks before, carrying the dead weight of McGregor in his hands made it even harder.

As they turned into the medic bay, Locks lay McGregor down on the floor using a first aid kit as a pillow, as the one rack in the room was already being used by McCormack. Hunter directed Foster to his chair and Wilson sat down next to McCormack's feet. Hunter began collecting supply's. Pain meds, bandages, and splints. He walked over to Foster and began tentatively working on his arm. Wilson used his uninjured arm to prod McCormack.

"How's it going mate?" he asked, but there was no reply.

Hunter also gave him a bit of a prod "McCormack, I need thumbs up"

Still no response.

This greatly worried Locks, as it was very uncharacteristic behaviour for his good friend. "Alright, stop yacking, you okay Nick?" he asked with great concern.

Locks stood up straight from where he had been leaning against the door frame next to Tully. He exchanged a quick glance with Hunter and stepped over McGregor to get to McCormack. He removed the ventilator mask, and then the completely blood soaked towel, he gave him a light shake but there was still no response. Locks leant in to try and listen to McCormack's breath, but there was none. Worriedly, he looked up at Hunter before grabbing McCormack's wrist and trying to find a pulse. At this point, Hunter was getting increasingly worried, and shoved Locks out of the way. Putting two fingers on McCormack's neck, he searched for a pulse, but there was none.

Hunter looked up at Locks who was standing over him "He's dead" he said calmly "I'm sorry"

It took a while for Locks to comprehend what had happened. His best friend was dead, right in front of him. He turned to faced Tully, who was still standing in the doorway. Jumping over McGregor on the ground he launched himself at Tully, grabbing him by his shirt and pushing him back into the wall of the corridor opposite the door.

"This is all your fault! This is all your fault!" he shouted angrily "We shouldn't have left him alone!" he yelled, shoving Tully up against the wall again.

"Stop it, stop it, stop that" Hunter argued, attempting to pull Locks of Tully to no success. They parted eventually and Locks stalked of, fuming in anger, confused and upset. Tully straightened his shirt, took a final look at McCormack before walking off in the opposite direction. Hunter, now alone in the corridor, turned back to face his bay once more.

Wilson gingerly moved away from McCormack and onto a nearby chair.

Hunter was staring at McCormack's body when he realised, "Oh shit, McGregor!" he panic and quickly fell to his knees to start attending to him, as he was still on the floor and still unconscious.

Picking out an Oxygen mask from a cupboard, Hunter placed it on McGregor. It was important that he could remember all his training about head trauma because the preliminary treatment was crucial.

"Right, stabilizing…. Oxygen and… blood flow, right" There wasn't much he could do for McGregor, but straightening his head and neck would give him the best chance of coming out of this unscathed. Quickly considering his options, he decided he had done all he could. "I have to go tell the commander" Hunter told Wilson and foster. "Foster, keep checking McGregor here, anything happens to him, if anything happens to any of you, you shout so the loud the mermen of Atlantis hear you. Understood?"

And so as the medic Adam Hunter walked down that long and cramped hallway. He thought of everything he could have done differently, every miniscule action he could have changed to fix the situation he found himself in now. But thinking about it was no good; Nick McCormack now lay dead in Hunter's Medic Bay, and no matter how hard he thought about it nothing was going to change that. As he walked to find Commander Sharp and break the bad news, Adam Hunter stoped and sighed. Isn't hind sight a wonderful thing.

A long way away, Ziva David had also stopped walking. She had seen something so shocking that it stopped her dead her tracks. Right before her very eyes was none other than Anthony DiNozzo, at work early, sitting at his desk actually working and actually filling out the large tower of paperwork that had congregated on his desk in the past few weeks.

Ziva scrunched her eyes in confusion and smiled slightly, sitting down at her desk and staring at him suspiciously.

"What has gotten into you today?" she asked

Tony looked up from his desk with wide eyes. "About six cups of coffee since 3 am" he answered

"What is wrong?" Ziva asked concerned

"That freaky man hands women from accountings on my case. She came up to me last night and said that if I didn't hand all my paperwork in by this afternoon, I would die a very painful death. Of course I didn't believe her until she called me at midnight, and then again at 1am and then again at…" Tony stopped talking as McGee entered the sqaudroom. Hey Tim, how's it going? You feeling good today?"

McGee dumped his stuff on his desk and turned around. "I feel dandy Tony, why the concern?"

"Dandy who says Dandy?" Tony replied, playing with his pen.

"Tony fears for his life because he has not turned in his paperwork for over two weeks" Ziva smiled

"I was busy" he retorted. He turned to McGee. "Vera, from accounting, she came up to me with her freaky man hands and said I'd die a painful death if I didn't hand all this in tonight. Apparently she's got a hit list, I'm number one and its wabbit season"

"Who was second" Ziva laughed

"Who's on first" Tony replied

"What?"

"Yeah, he's on second"

"Sorry? Ziva asked

" No, I don't think he's on the team." Ziva just stared back at him, Tony sighed. "Ziva it's a classic, Abbot and Costello, Who's on first, what's on second, I don't knows on third. Oh come on Ziva!"

"Yeah, I think almost everyone's knows it Ziva" McGee chimed

"Today's catcher, Tomorrow's pitcher, I don't care is short stop." Tony continued

"And get back to work if you want to live is outfield?" McGee smiled

"Just Google it Ziva, now stop distracting me from my paperwork, I'm not planning on dying tonight." Tony said, turning his attention back to the mountain of papers covering his desk.

"I've got a distraction for you Tony" Gibbs said walking in "Dead sailor on board USS Seawolf, let's go" He continued leaving out the other side.

The three quickly began to gear up, but paused.

"Are we going to the sub Boss? Tony asked

"To MTAC" Gibbs replied from the landing above them, continuing to climb the stairs

"On your six Boss"


	2. Chapter 2

**So I'm going to try and put up a chapter weekly, so this time every week or maybe a day either way. I may have forgotten to put this in my last chapter *Cough Cough* Whoops…. Anyway, I do not own NCIS or any of the characters or anything like that. **

**Big thanks to Dixie Dewdrop and Smush68 for reviewing. Feel free to keep the reviews and the random words coming **

**Thanks again for reading, enjoy.**

**So long and thanks for all the fish**

Director Vance and Gibbs were already deep in conversation when the rest of the team arrived in MTAC. The giant screen in front of them was filled with coloured bars awaiting signal. As the team approached, the director and Gibbs quickly broke of their conversation, but both were clearly unhappy about something.

"USS Seawolf online sir" One of the computer techies said as the colour bars flickered into life, dissolving into the face of an older man, who too looked very unhappy.

"Director, Special agent Gibbs. There are one hundred and six teen men aboard this ship. One of which is dead, one is barely alive, one with a dislocated shoulder, one with a broken arm, 3 with broken noses, 4 with black eyes, and 46 men in total on report for insubordinate conduct for involvement in two separate brawls , and Sec Nave told me, and I quote, to 'Man up and deal with it'. I'm not even allowed to make port to drop off the body; the mission has been deemed 'to important'. I have to continue for three more weeks with an incompetent crew, a dead man and a man on the brink of a coma. So tell me Special Agent Gibbs. What do you intend to do about it?"

"And good afternoon to you to commander" Vance smiled

"Tell me about the deceased" Gibbs replied.

"Nick McCormack, well let's just say he was a free spirit, Not much could hold him down. He had a few friends aboard, and some enemy's. He was the aggressor in both fights along with his buddy Tucker. From what I hear they had a history but other than that I don't know sir."

"Who was the last person to see him alive?" Gibbs asked

"Hosptial Corpsman Adam Hunter and Weapons Officer, Petty Officer Steven Locks. I have them here right now" Commander Sharp reached off screen and dragged the two men into shot.

"What happened?" Vance asked

"It was my fault sir, I broke protocol" Hunter said stepping forward.

"What do you mean officer?"

"I left McCormack alone in the medic bay while Locks and I went with Chief Petty Officer Tully to retrieve McGregor, Foster and Wilson from where the fight occurred. McCormack was having an Asthma attack due to assertion in the fight and had a heavily bleeding broken nose. He died of asphyxiation, I originally thought it was because he choked on his own blood. But I had a look and there's not enough blood in his throat for that to happen sir."

"What are you saying Petty officer?" Vance demanded.

"I don't think McCormack's death was an accident sir, His death has all the tell-tale signs of Asphyxia, but there's no way that it would have happened by itself, something, or someone, must have interfered."

Vance looked to Gibbs and Gibbs looked to Vance and they nodded discreetly to each other. Gibbs turned to face his team behind him and paused, taking a few moments of consideration.

"Ziva, Tony, pack your bags"

"ahhhhh…" Tony replied "Yeah boss, I really need to finish some of that…" he stopped talking on sight of Gibbs' glare. "But you know what Boss if I'm not in the country Vera probably can't get to me, on it boss." He finished in a single breath, rocking back on his heels and exiting MTAC with Ziva in tow.

Meanwhile on the sub, the Commander had dismissed the two Petty officers and returned to his seat in front of the camera.

"I'm not allowed a stopover so your agents are going to have to take the long way Special Agent Gibbs. "

"Got it" Gibbs nodded, turning to the computer guys and signalling to cut the signal. He turned to leave but was cut off by Vance.

"I need a quick resolution on this one" He said, stepping back to allow Gibbs to pass.

"I know, director"

Meanwhile in the sqaudroom, Tony and Ziva were packing their bags.

"Isn't this exiting Ziva, you and I going to spend a few days on a submarine together, I hear its very cramped down there, who knows what could happen." He smiled at her, raising his eyebrows.

Ziva turned to face him. "If you so much as touch me, I'll break your arm" she said with a smile.

"Kind of figured it would be something like that" Tony replied, he scrunched some paper up threw it at her. She batted it away in surprise

"Tony!"

"I didn't touch you" he defended. Ziva smiled and shook her head. She leant down, collecting 6 or so papers of her own desk, scrunching them into balls and throwing them along with Tony's paper ball back at him in quick succession. Gibbs chose this time to enter the squad room with McGee close behind.

"Do I need to get a sitter?" Gibbs asked, Tony and Ziva both smiled at each other guiltily.

Gibbs walked to his desk and looked closely at the computer monitor, whacking it a few times to try and make it work. Tony hopped out from behind his desk and walked over to Gibbs.

"Though made famous by the Fonz in the classic 80's sitcom Happy Days, You do know whacking it, doesn't actually make it work, don't you?"

"It works with you" Gibbs replied, giving the computer another wack.

"Point taken…"

"Once the three of you arrive on the Submarine, the boat will take Petty Officer McGregor and Petty Officer Wilson back to the frigate for transfer to hospital."

"The three of us Boss?" Tony asked

"Well yeah" Gibbs replied as the elevator doors dinged, and out walked Jimmy palmer with a large bag. "You two are on the case, Palmer will work on the body"

"It will be nice to work with you" Ziva smiled

"Get Packing" Gibbs ordered and both Tony and Ziva left for the elevator. Palmer took a second before he realized that was him as well, and made a dash for the elevator, just making it through the closing doors.

"Right Boss" McGee said, standing up from his desk and bringing up a series of documents on the plasma. "Petty Officer Nick McCormack, second class. Weapons technician, 28 years of age. Not married but engaged to a Charlotte Williams.

No other family, His parents were killed in a car crash two years ago and his older brother died of cancer 4 years ago"

"Girlfriends address?"

"Apartment in Alexandria "

"What about his 'Buddy' Tucker?"

"Petty Officer Mathew Tucker, Engineer, 29 years old. Married to Jennifer Tucker, He went to high school with Petty Officer McCormack but that's all I've had time for boss." McGee finished.

"Keep working"

The elevator dinged and the doors opened again, this time, Ducky stepping out. He quickly walked into the sqaudroom and towards Gibbs. He stopped in front of Gibbs's desk, "It appears you've stolen my assistant Jethro"

"Only for a couple of days Duck" Gibbs replied, whacking the computer again, then looking up at Ducky.

"But what if I need assisting?"

"I'm sure McGee would be happy to help."

Ducky chuckled, "Ah, May I ask why you need Mister Palmer?" he asked, having a quick look around to see if he could see him.

"Dead body on a submarine"

"Ah, very well then Jethro. I look forward to seeing you in autopsy Timothy" Ducky smiled as he left for the elevator at the rear of the building.

"You were kidding about the autopsy thing weren't your boss?"

Gibbs grabbed his gun and started walking out of the sqaudroom, he turned around "You coming Tim?"

"Right, yes boss" he replied, quickly grabbing his own gun and back pack and following Gibbs. "Just, where are we going?"

"Fiancé's house" Gibbs walked swiftly out of the sqaudroom to the other elevator, punching at the button. The doors opened immediately opened and Gibbs walked in, standing and waiting for McGee to follow. He slipped in beside him, juggling his backpack, gun and badge and trying to put them all on a once. The elevator doors closed, and they were on their way.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys, here's the new chapter. Thanks for reading and please feel free to review . That is all :D **

Tony, Ziva and Palmer had each gone home and packed their bags. Meeting up again in less than an hour's time at the airport awaiting their flight to the air carrier on their way to the sub. Tony had a large overnight bag as well as his usual, work backpack while Ziva had a tiny overnight bag and her work backpack. Poor Palmer meanwhile was struggling with a large overnight bag and two, large, heavy and over packed bags of medical equipment.

As Ziva and Tony lead the way to the plane, as Palmer struggled behind them. While discussing the case, Ziva paused.

"How did Gibbs get the Commander to allow me on the submarine?" Ziva asked Tony "Aren't women on submarines quite a controversial issue?"

"He dealt with it the easy way"

"How?" Palmer replied, using the slowing in Tony and Ziva's pace to catch up with them.

"Hey didn't ask. Be prepared for some grief when we board"

Ziva rolled her eyes and continued walking. It was typical of Gibbs to create a mess like this that she had to deal with whether she liked it or not.

"How do we get from here to the submarine?" Palmer asked.

"You haven't done this before have you Jimmy?" Ziva asked smiling.

"No" he replied nervously, "Why?"

Tony and Ziva both laughed. This was shaping up to be quite an interesting trip "Well you see, we take an airplane to the carrier, a helicopter to a frigit and then a boat to the submarine."

"How long is that going to take?"

"Right" Tony started, "Here's what you need to know?"

Meanwhile, Gibbs and McGee had arrived At Nick McCormack's fiancé's house in Alexandria. It was the embodiment of the American dream home. A white painted house with a grey tiled roof and a perfect flowerbed across the front, sitting below a small front porch. A white picket fence with roses weaved between the palings. A pristine footpath made its way through an immaculately cut front lawn from the sidewalk on the street to the front door of the house.

Knock, Knock, Knock

Gibbs stepped back from the door and waited for a response from inside. McGee meanwhile was admiring the front yard, and marvelling at the perfectly cut roses.

"If I ever get married, this is the sort of house I think I'd like to live in" he decided

From inside, footsteps approached, and then stopped. The lock clicked and the door opened just a few inches, a women peering through the crack. Her curly brown hair hung down over her face, her were eyes wide and her mascara was running from crying.

Gibbs and McGee both opened their wallets and flashed their badges and ID's.

"Special Agent Gibbs, Special Agent McGee, NCIS, are you Charlotte Williams?"

The women opened the door a tiny bit further "Yeah, that's me" She replied, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Could we have a word please?" McGee asked

"Yeah, uh, sure" She replied vaguely, she gave a small nod and opened the door waving them in while wiping her eyes again. "I'm sorry, it's a mess, I know" She sniffed, pointing them towards a couch, quickly straightening the cushions and throw rug on it before either of them sat down. Quite on the contrary to what she had said, the place was almost compulsively tidy, each ornament and photo frame on the mantel piece was dead straight and evenly positioned and the whole room was unbelievably neat and organised. Yet even as she sat, Charlotte could not resist adjusting the already perfectly positioned books on her coffee table.

"Right Char! I'm off" A male voice yelled form the back of the house.

Charlotte sniffed once more "Justin, in here"

A young, sandy haired man in a sharp business suit poked his head around the corner.

"This is my brother, Justin" she told them "these men are from NCIS, there here about what happened to Nick."

"Is that true? So his death wasn't an accident then?" Justin Demanded. Stepping into the room and putting his briefcase on the floor.

"Uh, yes, what makes you think he was killed?" McGee replied flustered.

"Well you're here aren't you?" The brother walked further into the room and put his hand on his sister's shoulder. "You find whoever did this, you find whoever killed Nick. His death has made her an absolute wreck. She's depressed and her OCD is getting worse and worse with all the stress. You find whoever killed him." Justin finished, tapping Charlotte once more on the shoulder before picking up his briefcase and walking out the door.

"Sorry" Charlotte sighed, wiping her eyes again "Justin's a bit, over protective"

"There is a possibility that your fiancé death wasn't an accident, do you know of anyone that would want him dead?"

Charlotte began to sob quietly "No, I didn't know much about his Navy job, I didn't want him to go. He proposed to me just 3 days before his previous deployment. We only had a few weeks together before he had to go again."

"did he say anything to you? Was he acting strange, worried or distracted before he left?"

"No" she replied quietly," not at all"

Gibbs stood up and handed her his business card "If you remember anything, give me a call."

"Thankyou" McGee nodded, also standing up and following Gibbs out. They closed the door behind them, walked out across the small porch, down the stairs and onto the footpath, heading back towards their car. "So Boss? What do you think?" he asked

Gibbs just shrugged.

"Welcome to the USS Seawolf" The submariner smiled, helping Ziva down off the ladder but ignoring Palmer above her who was struggling to hang onto the rungs of the ladder while juggling his bags.

"I'm Petty Officer Lucas Staninovski, you can call me Cas" He said, smiling at Ziva "This is Jacob Foster, we'll be showing you to your racks."

"Unfortunately, you are all going to have to be put up in the same room, that's all we can spare."

"Once you guys get set up we'll have Hunter take you to McCormack."

An awkward silence fell over the six of them as they began to walk down the corridors of the submarine.

"So…" DiNozzo started "What exactly is your mission?" he asked, tapping on some piping as he passed.

"Oh that's Classified" Foster replied.

"Really?" Ziva asked

"Really, really. I'm sure you'll get briefed sooner or later, but neither of us are authorized to, sorry"

"So… Foster, what's your job?" DiNozzo continued, still attempting to make small talk.

"I'm a weapons Technician."

"And you Staninovski?"

"Engineering, but please, call me Cas"

"So wait?" Palmer interrupted, "Why are we calling you Cas? I thought we were meant to call people by their last name on a submarine?"

"You refer to everyone by their last names, but on our sub we have three exceptions. Well two really. Cas here, plus Rob and Steven.

You see 'Staninovski' is a mouthful to say when you need him in a hurry, but that doesn't stop the officers and chiefs calling him by his last name. However, they do agree that calling out 'Cox' or 'Darling' is just plain weird." Foster chuckled

The conversation slowed to another awkward silence as they continued to walk. They rounded the final corner into the berthing compartment.

Ziva walked in immediately and dumped her stuff on one of the top bunk. Using her arms she pushed self up and onto the mattress, rolling over to lie on her back.

Palmer quickly took the other top bunk, dumping his bags on the bunk below. Tony sighed, dumping his bag on the floor and doing a side flip roll onto the remaining rack bellow Ziva. Lying on his back and raising his feet, he attempted to push the mattress above him but it didn't work. Swinging his feet down and around, he sat up quickly, hitting his head on the bottom of Ziva's bunk.

"Right" he said "Let's get to work"


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys, so I spent this afternoon writing this chapter to the sounds of thunder as there is a massive storm approaching… I can't wait I always enjoy a bit of thunder and lightning (insert bohemian rhapsody here)**

**Thanks for the reviews and feedback from Agent striker and Smush 68, also a big thanks to FanasyFlinger, andrewjeeces and mykidmom, and everyone else for reading. Reviews are always welcome, especially if you have a random word you would like me to include in the next chapter.**

**I do not own NCIS or any of the characters, and with that out of the way, enjoy **

Tony and Ziva had set up in the captains Stateroom, and were interviewing everyone involved in the latest brawl. Each submariner had their turn in the hot seat.

First up was Locks, who walked into the room with a sullen look on his face, he was still visibly upset by his friends sudden death. Tony, who was standing up against the wall, directed him to sit down across from Ziva. He raised his eyebrows when he saw her, but he said nothing, sitting down and slumping in the chair.

"Your name?" Ziva asked.

"Steven Locks ma 'mm" he replied. She quickly made a note on a piece of paper.

"Can you tell me what you did yesterday while the fight was on?"

"I was fighting ma 'mm" he replied.

"Who with?"

"ahh.. Andrew McGregor and Robert Cox, I think I took a swing at both of them." Locks replied, Ziva jotted it down.

"Can you tell me what the fight was about?"

"Long story, Tucker and McCormack never got along, Tucker had been bragging that he had slept with Charlotte at last port, and McCormack knew that they had dinner together. He was upset, he said something that he probably shouldn't, and Tucker took a swing. I tried to pull Nick away but Night took a swing at me, and before I knew it there were 30 of us."

"And afterwards"

"McCormack was having an asthma attack so I took to Hunter for treatment. Then I helped Tully and Hunter bring back Wilson, Foster and McGregor. When we got back, McCormack had already…"

"Did you know McCormack well?"

"He was my best mate on the sub, I was going to be the best man at his wedding"

"That's good, you can go" Ziva dismissed. He nodded, stood up and left. Tony walked over to Ziva and looked over her notes.

"What do you think?" he asked

"Andrew McGregor was the man knocked unconscious who left on the boat we arrived on. If I'm not mistaken, I think it was Locks that put him there, but he didn't kill McCormack."

DiNozzo nodded and returned to his spot against the wall. "Next!" he called

A few submariners later, it was Matthew Tucker's turn to be interviewed. He sauntered into the room, chest out, head up, sporting an impressive black eye. He too looked surprised to see Ziva sitting down at the table. Tony pointed him towards the seat, Tucker turned and faced him, sizing him up before biting his lip and sitting down in the chair.

"Your name?" Ziva asked.

"Matthew Tucker"

"And what were you doing yesterday while the fight was on?"

"Throwing punches ma 'mm" he replied with a smile.

"At who?"

"Nick McCormack, threw some good ones too, but he only landed one on me" he replied, pointing to his eye.

"You're not upset he's dead then"

"Not really" Tucker replied, Ziva and Tony shared a quick look before she proceeded.

"Why were you fighting, Locks claims that you started it"

Tucker laughed, "Yeah, Locks would say that. McCormack took a swing at me; I retaliated purely in self-defence."

"So you deny that you claimed to have slept with his fiancé?"

"Oh, I did, Charlotte's an old friend, we had a lot of… catching up to do."

"So was that the reason for the fight?"

"I don't know ma'am, Nick McCormack was a strange man. Who knows why he decided to take a swing at me."

Ziva nodded, writing it down "After the fight?"

"Went back to my Berthing compartment with Jefferys, Anderson and Night. Stayed there until my shift."

Ziva nodded and scribbled down almost a few notes before dismissing him. Tony came over once again. She looked up at him, relaxing in the chair. "He has an attitude problem, but I do not think that he killed our submariner. We don't even know if he was killed yet."

"Well 5 down" Tony smiled "Only 23 to go"

Next in was Robert Cox, a small man, of both stature and presence. Ziva continued her routine and asked him the same questions as she had with the others.

"Did you know him well?"

"Sure" he replied, "I mean everyone knew McCormack. He was very, outspoken. Never kept what he was thinking to himself. If he thought you were doing something wrong, he'd say so, no matter if you were a cook or the commander. Gave a lot of people a lot of strife. "

Soon followed Shawn Gillard, who took a similar view.

"Yeah, some people loved him, some hated him. He gave Jefferys a bad time, the commander was sick of him. But Tucker was definitely his main adversary on the sub; those two were constantly at each other's throats. "

Soon up was David Night who was very confident as he strolled into the room. Tony, getting tired from spending almost forty-five minutes resting against the wall, pulled up a chair. He placed it reversed up against the wall and lifting his leg over the back he sat down, resting his arms on the seat back in front of him.

"Where were you during the fight?" Ziva asked dryly, the question had become tiresome after the 17th or 18th time she asked, each time getting the same answer.

"Fighting with the rest ma'am" Night responded

"Who with?"

"I was watching Tuckers back, took a few swings at Locks, one or two at Hudson, maybe one at Rob"

"And afterwards?" Ziva asked making a note, gradually over the hour her writing had become messier and messier, developing from a neat cursive to an illegible scrawl. Every now and then she would stop, and pay attention, making sure an important word of alibi was clear. But her hand was getting sore from pages and pages of observations, and as long as she could half tell what she had written, that was okay with her.

"I went back to my berthing area with Jeffery's and Anderson"

Ziva's eyes snapped open; calmly she looked up to look at him. "And after that?"

Night shrugged, "We talked and waited for our shift"

Ziva flicked innocently through her notes, looking back up and him, staring straight into his eyes. "Matthew Tucker is also meant to be in that Berthing compartment, where was he?" She asked calm and collected.

He shrugged again "Probably went to see Hunter or something, I don't know ma'am"

Ziva lifted her head and nodded, "You may go."

Tony yawned and stood up from his chair, giving his arms and back a big stretch. "What was that about?" he asked tiredly

"Matthew Tucker's Alibi was that he returned to his berthing compartment after the fight. But Night disputed it, one of them is lying."

"Well which one did that look to the left thing?" Tony asked, cracking his neck.

"Not Night, but I wasn't paying that closer attention to Tucker. I'm not sure"

More Submarines were interviewed, each with their own alibi and each with battle wounds from the last fight. 24, 25, 26, 27, and finally, number 28, the last submariner who was involved in the fight that Ziva and Tony had to interview. After this, there were still the officers, the bystanders and the witnesses to question, but getting this last man out of the way would allow Tony and Ziva to take a breath of fresh air so to speak before they both went stir crazy from sitting in that small room.

Stanley Jefferys stepped in, and like everyman before him, paused upon the sight of Ziva. It had taken 28 men but when Jefferys entered the room, he looked from Ziva to Tony to Ziva and back to Tony.

"Who is _she_ sir?" he asked, face scrunched up in confusion.

"I am special agent Ziva David; I am a part of NCIS"

Jeffery ignored her "Women aren't meant to be on submarines" He told Tony.

"Do you have a problem with me?" she asked.

Jeffery turned towards her and considered his answer for a second. "Yeah, I think I do."

Ziva turned her head and shot a look at Tony, who nodded, stood up and swapped seats with her.

"Your name?" Tony asked.

"Stanley Jefferys"

"What were you doing yesterday while the fighting was going on?"

"Getting payback, fair and square, threw a few, copped a few, did nothing wrong" he replied defiantly.

"Who were you fighting with?"

"Locks, Gillard, Cox, Hudson. Would have happily knocked out McCormack, but Tucker didn't give me the chance" Jefferys replied, Tony nodded and wrote it down below Ziva's notes. His neat printing a refreshing change from the messy scrawl above.

"And afterwards?"

"Went back to my compartment with Night and Anderson… and Tucker… he was there to"

"How well did you know McCormack" Tony asked, tapping the pen against his chin as he listened.

"Hated the bastard, never had a good word to say about my cooking, always complaining. You try cooking for 120 people; it's not easy I'm telling you. There he was expecting 5 star meals, someone needed to put him in his place."

"Not a friendly relationship then?" Tony asked.

"No sir, not at all"

"Right, you can get back to your station Petty officer." Tony told Night, waving him away. Night stood up and began to leave, shooting a quick look at Ziva before walking out the doorway.

Ziva stretched out her arms and stood up, snatching her notepad from Tony and flicking through the many pages of notes she had written over the last few hours. "I do not like that man" she said simply.

Tony used his two hands on the edge of the desk to push back on his chair, leaving just the two back legs of the chair on the ground. "Well in terms of suspects, Tucker sure looks the worst."

"I don't know" Ziva replied "A lot of people were angry, anyone of them could have walked in and strangled him or smothered him with a pillow. It would not have taken much."

Tony smiled up at her "Not everyone gets homicidal when they get angry Ziva" he beamed

She whacked him with her notebook, and in self-defence he brought his hands up to defend himself, forgetting about balancing himself on the chair. It tipped and he fell backwards onto the floor.

He let out a groan and curled up into a ball, rolling off the chair back and onto the floor.

Ziva laughed, and began to walk out, leaving DiNozzo on the floor. "Didn't your parents ever tell you not to swing on your chair" She smiled "Come on, let's see how Palmers going, see if we are hunting a murderer or not."

Tony groaned and slowly got to his feet, limping out.

McGee sat in the Sqaudroom typing; the only sound in the room came from the ZNN sport reporter that was on the TV behind Tony's desk. Almost everyone in the building had left and gone home, leaving 2, maybe three still working in the building. One was McGee, then Ricky Forrest from the threat assessment squad who was working to the left and down the corridor. Finally, the last agent in the building was Gibbs, but McGee didn't know where he was or what he was doing, so he didn't know whether to count him as working or not.

Out of all the teams in the building, Gibbs' faithful fighters were by far the most frequent to occupy the building afterhours. And McGee would usually be joined by Ziva and Tony, sleeping or not it was still nice to have them here when he worked through the night. Gibbs would disappear for an hour or so before reappearing and working frantically for the next two.

McGee looked up from his work, scanning over the empty room. He stood up and walked over to Tony's desk, flicking on his desk light. McGee grabbed a pile of Tony's yet to be finished paperwork and flicked through them. Case reports, pay slips, you name it, it was there. For a moment McGee considered stealing a few folders, stashing them in his desk until Vera from accounting came looking for the outstanding files. Tony would not know what hit him, and it would make for an interesting show, but then, McGee would never do that to Tony.

But then... Maybe this once…

"How's it going Tim?" Gibbs asked, arriving back into the sqaudroom after a long absence. McGee dropped the files back onto the pile, which swayed and fell, spreading all the manila folders and pieces of shiny white paper across Tony's desk and the floor surrounding it. Tim quickly bent down and began to gather them all up again into a messy stack which quickly slid out of his hands and back onto the floor.

Gibbs chuckled and took a sip of coffee, "Leave it McGee, What have you found?"

"Right, most of the crew have met before, especially the brawling ones. This is the first time the 34 submariners on report have ever been together as one on a crew. They have been on the same crews before, but only groups of 5 or 6, never all in the same place at the same time.

As far as previous reports go it's pretty quiet. There's the usual, smoking, drinking, the occasional insubordinate conduct to McCormack, Locks and Anderson. McCormack has a few complaints under his belt, nothing major and they have all been dismissed. His crewmates think that he is a bit to of a free speaker, and his blunt honesty has resulted in many complaints. But none of them have ever amounted to anything.

Back to relationships between the crew. We have Locks and McCormack. They have been on their previous 4 deployments together. Locks was to be best man at the wedding and every Friday they had on leave, their credit cards suggest that they spent the afternoon drinking together.

Tucker and Night, close friends away from the Navy, this is their second deployment together.

Now this is where it gets interesting, Tucker, McCormack and Charlotte Williams all went to high school together. I made a few calls a couple of hours ago, well as many as you can at 11 at night. From what I understood, Tucker was originally Charlotte's boyfriend, He then became close friends with McCormack through Football and Charlotte dumped him in favour of McCormack. From what I hear Tucker has always been very bitter.

A few weeks ago, Charlotte and Tucker met for lunch one day and then dinner the next, that's all I've got so far, I'll get back to work and keep digging" McGee finished with a small smile.

"No, that's good McGee, get some rest."

McGee looked up from his desk "You sure boss?" he asked

"Yeah I'm sure" Gibbs replied, staring up at the plasma and taking a sip of his coffee. His eyes shifted to the small TV behind Tony's desk, the ZNN news had moved on to the weather, and the reporter in a small red dress was gesturing to a large patch of dark blue on the radar map.

Out the window, light flashed and the sky rumbled. A storm was coming, it was coming fast.

And it was big.


	5. Chapter 5

**Next few chapters may be a bit late, my half yearlies, yes I did say half yearlies have arrived and I will be spending my time studying instead of writing, sorry. Thanks again to smush68 for reviewing, much appreciated and always welcome. Enjoy.**

Palmer worked over the body, checking the usual things, thinking about the usual things. But without the one thing that was most important, Ducky. This was Palmers first completely solo mission to discover the secrets of the dead. Sure in the past, Ducky had been kind, giving him free rein on the body every now and then. But no matter what, Palmer knew Ducky was looking over his shoulder, whether he said it or not, Ducky was observing him, watching him with the eye of a hawk in case he slipped up, no matter what, Ducky was always criticising him.

Palmer knew that it was Ducky's job to watch and criticise, it was his job to mentor and teach, but he just wished that every now and again Ducky would show how proud he was of how far Palmer had come and how much he had learned in the last 8 years. Palmer wasn't a newbie anymore, but he wasn't sure Ducky knew that.

This was his first case flying completely solo, working without Ducky or some other replacement ME looking over his shoulder. This was his chance to shine, to show NCIS how good he was. He wanted to impress them, be like Sherlock Holmes, making deductions and solving cases in the blink of an eye. At least that's how Palmer wanted it to be.

"I… I don't know" Palmer sighed, sitting back on his heels and running his hands through his hair. "I have absolutely no idea"

"What's wrong?" Hunter asked, peering his head into the refrigerator unit where Palmer was kneeling.

"I don't know how he was killed" Palmer replied, looking up to Hunter in the doorway. "He definitely was killed, I mean, I fairly sure he was killed… There is petechial haemorrhaging which means asphyxiation, and no clear natural reasons why. But there's nothing to say that it was murder either, each sort of Asphyxia shows its own signs. Strangulation, bleeding and bruising around the throat, maybe a few defensive wounds. Suffocation, Bruises or traces of the murder weapon in the airways for example feathers or fibres. Then there's all the other forms of asphyxiation, compressive asphyxiation, Self-induced hypocapnia by Hyperventilation, Seizures, Nitrogen asphyxiation. All forms of asphyxia with their own tell-tale signs, but none of which are on this body… I just don't know…" Palmer sighed

"You said defensive wounds, is there any way to tell if any of his injuries were sustained after the fight?"

"No" Palmer shook his head "To short a time interval between the two events."

"I'm sure you'll think of something" Hunter replied, awkwardly patting Palmer on the shoulder.

"This reminds me of the Burke and Hare murders in 1828, they smothered their victims by compressing the chest of a victim, hardly left a mark. They sold their 17 kills to a doctor for dissection." Palmer chuckled "That's something Doctor Mallard would say.

I thought I was ready, I thought I could handle it. I thought that if Doctor Mallard retired or something ever happened to him I would be able to cope and take over, I wouldn't have to be assistant to some new Medical examiner that came swanning in.

This was my golden ticket; this was my chance to show NCIS that I could run the factory. But I can't, so it looks like Willy Wonka is going to have to hang onto the Chocolate factory a bit longer."

"So you're not ready just yet, no big deal, don't worry about it" Hunter smiled "I'm sure it will all work out in the end" Hunter told him, giving him a small smile and walking back out.

Tony and Ziva walked down the corridor and towards the refrigeration unit were Nick McCormack's body was being kept, and where Palmer was working. They had a lot of suspicious suspects, but nothing concrete on any of the crew members, and they hoped that Palmer would have some better news.

Ziva pushed the door open and stepped in, followed by Tony who wriggled in beside her. The body was lain out on the floor onto of a black body bag, and against the wall sat Palmer, knees up, hands clasped with forefingers pointer and resting on his chin. He sat there in thought, looking at the body, staring at the body, hoping for any sort of clue or any memory to come back to him that might help him solve this case.

"How's it going Jimmy?" Tony asked.

"Well I'm almost absolutely sure he was killed, and I think you guys should investigate it even if there is that slim possibility that this was an accidental death. But I'm sorry; I don't have any answers on how. There just isn't enough evidence and I can't do an autopsy. I'm going to have to call Doctor Mallard and see what he has to say."

Tony and Ziva nodded, this wasn't the result they were looking for, but it was a result nonetheless.

The refrigerator door opened and Hunter stepped back in after going to get some paperwork for Jimmy. Suddenly the small room became very cramped, as each member in the room realised just how little space there was in the room for 4 people and a dead body.

Hunter smiled awkwardly, his shoulder squashed up against Ziva's. "Maybe we should go outside?" He proposed "Besides, Palmer should really warm up."

The four of them piled out, Hunter first, then Ziva and Tony and then Palmer, who shut the door behind him.

"So no luck at all?" Tony asked, just to be sure.

"No, sorry"

Tony inhaled deeply deciding what to do. "Okay Palmer, you and Ziva go and see the Commander and see if you can organise a video conference with MTAC." The two of the headed of down a corridor towards the control room, leaving Hunter and Tony together outside the refrigeration unit.

"So how well did you know McCormack?" Tony asked, seizing the opportunity to question another suspect.

"I wouldn't say we were friends, Acquaintances maybe? Every time he got into a fight he would come to me and I would fix him up, and warned him not to get into another fight. He didn't listen though."

"Every time?"

"Yes sir, not just twice. McCormack was hardly ever out of my sight, as soon as I'd fix him up for one thing he would come back with another. I don't think he got along very well with some of the others."

"You didn't report any of this."

"I did, at first. But the Commander told me not to, he knew what was going on but he said he couldn't do anything to stop it. It wasn't that bad sir, just a bruise or a cut here or there."

"What where you doing while the others were fighting?" Tony asked

"Working"

"And after?"

"I helped McCormack, sat him down on one of the racks with a ventilator. Then Tully asked Locks and I to help him get Foster, McGregor and Wilson."

"And so you left him"

"No… yes, he told me to go, I didn't want to, and Locks didn't want me to go but McCormack told me to go. I assumed if he needed help he would shout and someone would hear."

"So you negligence could be the reason why someone had the chance to waltz in an squeeze the air from his lungs"

"I'm not happy about it but yes sir"

"You don't sound to upset that he died Hunter" Tony retorted

"I have a job to do, what good is getting upset going to do? Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to that job." Hunter replied coldly, nodding briefly to Tony before walking off in the opposite direction. Tony yawned and stretched, and headed back towards their berthing quarters

Ziva walked back towards the refrigeration unit, heading for Hunters Medical Bay. She needed to interview the final person on the sub who had been involved in the latest fight, Wilson, who had dislocated his arm when someone punched him in the shoulder. Foster, who had broken his arm and McGregor, who was knocked unconscious, had both left on the boat that Tony, Palmer and Ziva had arrived on, and they were headed for the nearest hospital on the mainland.

She had been unsuccessful in getting to speak to the Commander, who was still too busy to talk to her, as he had been since they arrived. So she was making herself useful by getting on with the next thing they needed to do.

She had been told by Cas that Wilson was waiting there in the bay, instead of being in his Berthing area like she expected. She knocked on the outside of the door and peered in.

Wilson was sitting on the rack holding his shoulder; he looked up in surprise at Ziva.

"May I come in?" Ziva asked

"Yeah, sure, sorry. I heard NCIS was creating quite a stir, I see why now." He laughed "Oh, no offense, sorry"

"None taken, Is your shoulder okay?"

"Its fine, I just need a few more painkillers and my tape fixed up, that's all."

Ziva nodded and sat down on a chair in the corner. "How well did you know McCormack?" She asked

"I wasn't close, but I spent some time with him at my station. Nice bloke didn't care what people thought of him, got in to trouble for it. But I'm sure you've already heard all this already"

"What were you doing during and after the fight?"

"Believe it or not I was trying to break it up. I saw Locks and Jefferys going at each other and tried to step in. Rudd pulled me out and started to take a few swings, got one right in the joint of the shoulder, hurt like hell. I waited until the Commander cleared everyone off and Tully found me. He went and got Hunter and Locks and we came back here. McCormack was already dead."

"If he was killed, who do you think did it?"

"Anyone had the chance I suppose. Tucker was always baiting him, trying to start a fight, and then there were plenty of others who didn't like him. But Jefferys really didn't like him, like really, really didn't like him. I remember we had lasagne one night and McCormack went on a long winded rant about who crap it tasted. If looks could have killed, he would have been doing 15 to 20. If anyone wanted to kill McCormack, I think it's him."

Ziva smiled "Thank you, you have been very helpful" she nodded and left the room, heading back towards the Berthing area.

By the time Ziva got back, Tony was already there, waiting on his rack for her to return. The Commander had finally finished whatever he had been doing that had kept him busy and finally got to talk to Tony, who organised a video conference with NCIS. The only problem was they were going to have to surface to make the call, which would slow them down.

Tony sat up when he saw Ziva arrive, she smiled and jumped up onto the top bunk, swinging herself onto the rack and rolling to lie on her back. She propped her head up with her hands and closed her eyes.

"So how did you go?" Tony asked her in a hushed voice. Attempting not to wake the snoozing Palmer who was lying on the rack on the other side of the small room.

"I talked to Wilson, he was very interesting, seemed to think although Tucker was the obvious suspect, we should be concentrating on Jefferys the cook. You?"

"Quick chat with Hunter after you left. Though he seems very quiet and innocent, he certainly had a cold shoulder." Tony replied.

Ziva scrunched her eyes in confusion and looked over the edge of the rack, down at Tony. "Because he spent time in the refrigerator?" She asked in confusion.

Tony rolled his eyes, "You know what I'm going to get you next Christmas, a dictionary of idioms."

"That will not be necessary Tony." Ziva smiled "So you believe that Hunter killed McCormack."

"Sure, why not?"

"When?" she questioned

"He had a chance, maybe he compressed his chest when he was treating him, maybe he replaced the ventilator with a vacuumed so it sucked the life out of him" Tony replied, pretending to be a zombie.

"I am a good judge of character; I do not believe he did it."

Tony flopped back down onto his rack, yawning and looking up at the bottom of Ziva's bunk. "Then who do you think killed McCormack?"

"I believe that Jefferys is a viable suspect."

"Bitter, yes. Spiteful, yes. Homicidal… no."

"The man makes things out of dead stuff for a living!" Ziva defended

Tony laughed, "You call cooking making things out of dead stuff! A taxidermist I could understand but a cook? Making things out of dead stuff? I tell you what; I'm never coming to one of your dinners again."

Palmer stirred and rolled over on his bunk "Don't worry about me…" he said sleepily, "Not like I'm trying to sleep or anything…"

"Sorry…" Ziva and Tony said in unison.

There was a pause before either spoke again.

"Neither of them?" Tony proposed.

"Neither of them." Ziva confirmed, and all three of the drifted off to sleep.

Harsh music blared loudly as Gibbs walked into Abby's lab. She was sitting at her desk with an arsenal of Caf Pow! at her side, 6 giant cups lined up in a row next to her keyboard. The keys pounded as she furiously typed, then her hand shot out and clicked the mouse, quickly grabbing the nearest Caf Pow! And in one swift movement, she took a big slurp. Abby slammed down the cup and the typing continued.

"How dare you! Come back…" Her typing got faster and faster before she finally slammed her finger down on the enter button "GOTCHA!" She yelled, jumping up and out of her seat.

"Abby?" Gibbs asked.

Abby spun around, one hand reaching for her radio remote and the other for her Caf Pow! The music ceased blaring and she took another slurp of Caf Pow!, skipping over to Gibbs and giving him a big hug. "I'm so glad you're here Gibbs, I haven't had anything to do cause there's no evidence on the case cause it's on a submarine so there hasn't been any evidence so there hasn't been anything for me to do down here so I got out 'Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego' and I have been playing it since 7 am which I think is almost 4 hours straight and I haven't had a break and I'm almost finished the game and I'm not sure what I'll do when I do finish the game because there isn't anything else for me to do and my wall is leaking from all that rain last night and its making a drip drip drip noise that is driving me insane and I don't have anything to do and I really need something to do or I just shut down and turn off like a laptop if I don't get work I shut my lid and go to sleep do you understand Gibbs?"

"Are you alright Abs?" Gibbs asked.

"No Gibbs, I'm not alright, Tony and Ziva and Palmer are all gone and I don't have anything to do!"

Gibbs sighed and rolled his eyes, "Come on"

"What?" Abby asked

"Come on" He repeated, starting back out towards the elevator

Abby almost jumped in excitement "Where are we going Gibbs?" She asked excitedly as she followed him into the lift.

"Up to the sqaudroom" He smiled "I'm going to let you play detective for a while."


	6. Chapter 6

**Right, Hello everyone!**

**Thanks so much for sticking by, I know it's been a while, sorry, I got caught up in exams and then got very sick so writing has been the least of my priorities. Thanks to everyone for reading and to everyone who reviewed, I'll put your names up in the next chapter. Don't forget to continue to send those random words for inclusion. I don't own NCIS sadly or any of the characters.**

**Thanks again, Cheers, brohoof **

**So long and thanks for all the fish**

Abby bounded into the sqaudroom with a smile on her face and a spring in her step, she rounded the corner into the bullpen and quickly sat down in Ziva's desk, spinning around a full 360 in her chair before getting up and sitting in Tony's instead. McGee looked up confused for a second but quickly returned to his work as Gibbs followed.

"How's it going McGee?" Gibbs asked, Tim got up from his seat and grabbed the remote for the plasma, Abby jumped up to and followed him to the screen, standing behind the two men as they spoke.

"I have been concentrating on the victim. Petty Officer Nick McCormack had 2 Formal complaints and 5 informal complaints attached to his name from his last few deployments under Commander Sharp. Five of these were from Sharp himself.

I've also had a look at his fiancé. There is a large spike in her credit card bills every time McCormack was deployed. Spending increases 3 fold, mostly on alcohol, and there is also a suspicious rise in withdrawals."

"Hey what's this?" Abby asked interrupting their work, waving a small yellow post it at the men. " 'FAy, my dusk… to nom, nom. One lose'… What does that mean?"

"What?" McGee asked, going over her and snatching the note out of her hands. "Oh, no, it says 'Files, my desk, tomorrow. Or else' Its Vera from accounting, terrible handwriting, maybe something to do with the size of her hands"

"You two done?" Gibbs asked. McGee nodded and returned the post it to Abby. "Then gear up" he said, grabbing his badge and his gun from his desk. McGee did likewise and grabbed his from his own.

"What did Tony do to incur the wrath of Vera?" Abby called after them as they left the bullpen "That's okay guys! I'll just stay here and make myself busy!" she skipped across and sitting herself down in Gibbs' chair.

Abby drummed her fingers impatiently against the table and wondered what see was going to occupy herself with now. Looking over the teams' desks, an idea sprung into her head, and it was going to be magnificent.

Tony stood and stared at Ziva as she slept. Behind him, Palmer lay on his bunk reading a book called Embalming: History, Theory, and Practice, that had been given to him by Brenna for his birthday.

"Thats kinda creepy Tony" Palmer told him, looking up from his book.

"Oh I know Jimmy, but she just looks so… tranquil. It's like…" he played with his hands trying to find the right word "It's like she doesn't want to kill anyone" He reached forward to poke at her hair that had flopped down over her face as she slept.

Not missing a beat, Ziva sat up, and pointed the gun that she had been holding under her pillow as she slept straight at Tony.

"Woah! It's me!" He yelled, hands in the air "Me, Tony, friend"

Still holding the gun in her right hand, Ziva used her left to clear the hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ears and blinking a few times to focus her eyes. She grunted in acknowledgement and lowered her gun.

"Were on a Submarine Ziva!" Tony exclaimed erratically "You don't have to sleep with a gun under your pillow when were on a submarine! Who do you think is going to attack you? A tuna?"

Ziva placed the gun on her pillow and rubbed her eyes, tying up her hair with an elastic on her wrist "There is a murderer on board Tony" She reasoned

"But still!"

"Let sleeping dogs lie" Palmer smiled from behind his book.

Hopping down of her bunk, Ziva shot him a dark look and walked out.

Tony flopped down next to Palmer on the rack "You know, I thought we finally turned her Jimmy. I thought we finally made her an American. Guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks" He sighed and ran his hand through his messy, bed hair. "So Jimmy, who's going to be the best man at ya' wedding?" Tony asked curiously.

Palmer laughed and returned to his book "Not you Tony"

"Awe come one Jimmy. Face it, your life has been so much better since you met me. These last 8 years have been the best years of your life"

Palmer nodded "They sure have Tony"

"Tell me!"

"No Tony"

Tony's expression dropped as he thought, it soon spread into a giant grin. He laughed "Don't tell me, don't tell me your best man's Ducky!"

"I'm not saying Tony"

"No! It's not Tim is it?"

"Not saying"

Ziva walked back into the bay with her hair neat and the sleepy look gone from her face. She ran her hand through her hair as she walked.

Tony shook his head and sat back down on his rack "A gun on a submarine, gessh. Do you know what kind of risk that is? Have I taught you nothing? How did you even get it aboard?"

"I am going to go and talk to Hunter" She replied, entirely ignoring his comment.

"I'll come with you, I need to have another look at that body" Palmer said, placing his book on his pillow and jumping down from his rack.

Tony smiled after them as he sat on his rack, tapping his foot against the side. "I'll just wait here until I think of something to do! Maybe I'll do some of that paperwork!" he called after them sarcastically, shivering at the thought of all that paperwork that sat unfinished on his desk.

"Hunter, could I have a word please?" Ziva asked as Palmer and her arrived at the bay. Hunter nodded and stepped forward.

Ziva waited until another submariner had passed out of hearing range until she started to speak. "Are you sure you didn't see anyone hanging around that may have had a chance to kill McCormack?"

"No one that I saw, you could ask Locks or Tully if they saw anyone."

Ziva nodded, that could be a job for Tony "Do you know of anyone who had a grudge against McCormack other than Tucker and his friends"

"Depends who you ask. Just about everyone had a reason to hold a grudge, he got on everyone's nerves at some point. Whether they held it against him or not was their choice."

"Anyone in particular?" Ziva pressed

"I don't like to rat on people Ma'am" Hunter replied reluctantly, looking over his shoulder nervously at the refrigerator door, inside which Palmer was currently having another look at the body.

"Rat?"

"Tell on... Look, I had a conversation with the Commander soon after the first brawl. He was never that friendly with McCormack, never liked him that much. He blamed McCormack for all the disruptions on the sub including the fight. I remember he told me that he would do anything to get McCormack of the submarine"

Ziva raised her eyebrows, this could be the lead they were looking for.

"The commander may be a lot of things but he's not a murderer. Tucker or even Jefferys is a much more likely suspect, I wouldn't put it past those to. But the Commander, no matter what he said, he wouldn't"

Ziva sighed, she and Tony would have to interview the commander. She still wasn't sure whether he knew that there was a women agent on board. And from the impression she got from some of the men aboard like Jefferys, It may not be so pretty when he found out.

Meanwhile, inside the refrigerator, Palmer sat on his knees over the body of Petty Officer McCormack. He looked for anything that he may have missed anything at all. But he couldn't see anything that would bring him any closer to finding the cause of his untimely demised. With a sigh, Palmer pushed himself up and onto his feet, bending over and zipping up the body bag. He pushed the door open and joined Hunter and Ziva in the corridor.

"You done then?" Hunter asked him

"Sure" Palmer replied "Think I've seen as much as I can. I've got a few ideas" he lied, he had no idea at all.

"What are you going to do now?" Ziva asked him

"Heading back to the room I think"

Ziva smiled "Tell Tony to meet me at the Commanders quarters in 5 then okay?"

Palmer nodded and begun to walk back down the corridor towards their berthing compartment.

When he finally got there, he found Tony in the same spot they had left him.

"Ziva wants you" He told Tony. Tony yawned widely and had a quick stretch, before walking out the door down towards the medic bay.

Jumping up onto his rack, Palmer lay on his back, propping his head up with his hands thinking. In just a few hours he was going to get to talk with Ducky when they finally got to make the call to MTAC. Palmer was going to have to stand up in front of Ducky, of Vance, Gibbs and McGee and tell them he had no idea. A terrible result for a first case.

Palmer fidgeted as he lay, sitting up on the edge of the rack instead. He couldn't think about that now, he didn't have time to think how embarrassing that moment was going to be. He had to think about the case and the body. And as much as he wanted to lie down and rest, that wasn't going to help him.

Palmer jumped back down from the bunk and walked back towards the medic bay, steps which he had taken just a few minutes before. Ziva and Tony had gone, off the interview the Commander about his involvement, and Hunter had also disappeared, presumably to do some of his other work aboard the sub. This meant that Palmer had the entire bay to himself.

When they first arrived, Tony and Ziva had gone through the room and looked for evidence, they had bagged and tagged a few things, but being so isolated there was little reason to collect every speck of dust that could be evidence. So most things were the way they had been when McCormack took his final breaths.

Clutching at straws, desperate to find a cause of death, Palmer begun a search himself. Bellow the pillow and the mattress of the one rack in the room and through the cabinets on the side. He couldn't find anything of particular usefulness and sat down disappointed on a chair, head in hands, willing himself to find a cause of death.

He had an idea, at first dismissing it, thinking it was stupid. But then he really begun to think

Opening the cupboards, Palmer pulled out the three oxygen masks inside. Two of them were small and the other a large asthma ventilator. Wiping the mouth piece, he put on both of the small oxygen masks for about 30 seconds at a time. Then he put on the mask for the Asthma Ventilator, after a few breaths everything seemed normal, but after just a few more, his breath became shallower. He took of the mask and smiled, then begun to laugh. It was hard to believe that Tony and Ziva had missed this in their search, but that didn't matter. He'd done it, he had found the cause of death.


	7. Chapter 7

**Again, so sorry, busy life. Not sure when the next chapter will be up, hopefully on time but I can't be sure. Thank you so much to everyone for reading, special thanks goes out to Smush68, Agent Striker, Mellonmarshall and DS2010. **

**Until next time, enjoy**

Gibbs and McGee arrived back at McCormack's Fiancés house in Alexandria to a much different scene to when they had been here just two days ago. The massive storm that had made its way through Washington DC the night before had well and truly taken its toll on Charlotte Williams house.

Far from the obsessively neat house and garden they had seen when they first came here, the place was now a bombsite. The storm had brought strong winds, hail and thunder and lightning, and had left a path of destruction through half of DC. A mixture of tree branches, leaves and debris from houses covered the front yard of every house in the street, however this could be easily cleaned up. What couldn't was the 23m tree that had fallen through the white picket fence with roses, across the immaculately cut front lawn, over the flowerbed with perfectly cut roses and the porch and had lodged itself in the side of Charlottes house.

Charlotte and her brother Justin were in the progress of a clean-up. Justin had rolled up the sleeves of his sweat shirt, donned heavy duty gardening gloves and was hacking into the larger branches of the trees canopy. He was working frantically to remove the tree from the side of the house and had managed to accumulate quite a large pile of cut branches. Charlotte meanwhile was raking the lawn, and in the time it had taken her brother to hack of a third of the branches of the tree, she had managed to rake the size of a square metre. This said, the raking was meticulous, in the mess that was the entire front yard to Charlotte Williams's house, there was a small raked patch of its original meticulous neatness.

McGee and Gibbs got out of the sedan and Charlotte and Justin both stopped working to come and greet them.

"What's wrong?" Justin asked, skipping normal pleasantries and cutting straight to the chase. He took off his gardening gloves and tucked them under his elbow as he walked towards them.

"Wait, OxyTech?" McGee asked

Justin looked down at his sweat shirt and nodded towards McGee, "Yeah, that's where I work, why?"

"OxyTech has a… PE shirt?"

"Fitness initiative, we have a company gym so we have a company shirt. I bet NCIS has the same" Justin retorted

"Yeah but its OxyTech"

"So? What do you want?" he demanded

"We just have a few questions, that's all" McGee replied

"About what?" Justin asked crossing his arms impatiently, Charlotte placed her hand his arm, holding him back.

"Would you mind letting us speak to your sister, alone?"

"Whatever you have to say to her, you can say to me"

Charlotte finally stepped forward "It's alright, its fine, he's just being…" she sighed and begun to fiddle with her watch

"We need to talk about your drinking"

Charlotte looked up at him and shyed away into her brothers arm "Yeah? What about it?" She asked timidly

"Are you having a problem with alcohol?"

"It's… I'm…"

"Yes she is, but I don't see how it's relevant to her fiancés murder."

"If you would let her talk" McGee asked, both NCIS agents getting fed up with the interruptions

"Nick was never really here, so I may have drunk a bit more than usual when he was away. But it wasn't a problem okay."

"It was more than just alcohol, we have records of you withdrawing large amounts of money for gambling and a hospital admission for a suspected drug overdose."

Justin stepped forward towards Gibbs and McGee "My sister was in love with Nick, and for him to be taken from her so soon took its toll. Yes, Okay, she had a few problems dealing with him not being there but so would anyone who got proposed to the day before their fiancé got deployed, again. I told you before, okay? My sister has always struggled with OCD, okay yes, she got depressed when he went away, yes she turned to alcohol. But that isn't her fault. And now he's dead that's gotten worse and she is very upset, but now she doesn't have to worry about him disappearing every time she gets to spend a few days with him. But she's never going to see him again and that is tearing her apart. But don't you dare for one second come in here and accuse her of anything, she has had a very hard time recently dealing with the death of Nick. So leave us alone and let us clean up our house and you find the man who killed her fiancé, find the bastard who killed Nick so that she can have some closure."

McGee inhaled sharply and was about to start to reply, before deciding against it.

"You have my number, give me a call if you think of anything" Gibbs asked Charlotte, giving up, turning around and walking back towards their sedan.

"What sort of things would I think of?" Charlotte asked. Gibbs turned around to face her and gave her a small smile

"Anything that might help us find your fiancé's killer." He replied, continuing walking towards the car. Still standing in the front yard, Justin and Charlotte both hugged before slowly returning to their work.

Meanwhile on the USS Seawolf, Ziva and Tony were encountering a similar situation. They stood in the hallway of the sub, Tony had his hand on the door but was hesitating to open it.

"You ready Ziva?"

"Yes Tony" she replied with a sigh.

"You sure? We are implicating the Commander of involvement in a murder"

"Yes and…?" Ziva shrugged confidently

"Right. Let's do it" Tony smiled, pushing open the door and walking into the Commanders room. He was the man from the MTAC call they had had with the USS Seawolf just two days ago, an older gentleman, rapidly greying and rapidly balding. The Commander was sitting at a desk, reading through a file in a manila folder. Tony entered first, leaving Ziva behind in the hallway. Commander Sharp shuffled the pages in the folder and placed it down on the table. He slid his reading glasses down on his nose so he could look at the agents in focus.

"What do you want this time? I hope it isn't more conference time, I've told you once, I'll tell you again, 25 minutes tonight is all we can spare! Stuff to do, things to blow up!" he joked.

Tony laughed and self-consciously looked over his shoulder at Ziva, "That's not what we're here for."

"Then what are you here for?" He asked, turning around fully to face the agents. When he saw Ziva, he breathed in deeply and sat up straight, peeling the reading glasses of his face and folding them in his hands. "What do you two want?"

"We have a few questions, that's all." Ziva replied.

"Questions? About what exactly?"

"Your involvement in the death of Petty Officer Nick McCormack"

"I'm sorry?" Sharp asked surprised. "What are you implying?"

"We need to know where you were around the time of his death." Tony asked him, taking a seat across the small room. Ziva stood leaning against the wall next to him eyeing his reactions suspiciously.

"I was here, working. I retuned here after helping break up the fight and I was reading until Locks came and told me what had happened."

"Is there anyone who can verify your alibi?" Ziva asked

The commander stared back at her "Ask any of my officers, I was here. Now I don't have time for this, I have better things to do. If you would kindly let your selves out."

"We have a few more questions" Tony replied

"I'm not going to tolerate being questioned about the murder of one of my crew. Now excuse me I have some work to do." Commander Sharp told them, he placed his glasses back on his face and picked up the same file that he had been reading when Tony and Ziva arrived.

"We have a witness that says he heard you say that you would 'do anything to get McCormack off your sub' What do you say to that?" Tony asked

"Well I…" The Commander started, but he was interrupted by a commotion outside, there was a loud thud followed by shouting. All three of them looked towards the door.

Ziva pushed herself of the wall and went to investigate. She opened the door slowly and stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her. A little way down the corridor, there was a scuffle between two crewmen. From here she couldn't tell who they were, and she slowly approached.

"Ziva! Ziva!" came the call from behind her, she turned to see Palmer running awkwardly down the corridor towards her, ducking and weaving through the maze of low hanging pipes and narrow doorways.

"Not now!" she hissed back and continued to approach the pair fighting. She could now see clearly the two participants, and they didn't surprise her. Steven Locks was holding Matthew Tucker up against the wall with his forearm and laying into him with his other hand.

She walked quickly towards them "Break it down, get away from each other" She told them calmly

Steven looked at her strangely, ignored her and continued to punch Tucker. Ziva sighed, grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back. He turned around and took a swing at her; she managed to doge it and use his temporary lack of balance to swing him around and press him up against the opposite wall. Tucker used this opportunity push Ziva off of Locks and take his own turn.

Ziva stumbled and launched herself back into the tussle, this time pulling Tucker off Locks. She managed to hold them apart, standing between them and pushing them away from each other. "Stop it, step away" She told them, but they still didn't comply.

Considering her options, Ziva took on Locks and pushed back while using her back to keep Tucker away. "Jimmy!" she called. He looked back at her with wide, frightened eyes. "Jimmy!" she called again more urgently as Locks and Tucker were still attempting to fight each other. "Palmer, come and hold Tucker!" She yelled at him.

Palmer reluctantly came and pulled Tucker off Locks and Ziva and dragged him back up the corridor and the two began to calm down. Having heard Ziva shouting, Tony and The Commander came out of the office.

"Nice work Jimmy" Tony smiled, seeing Palmer holding Tucker back.

Ziva pushed Locks up against a wall "What was this about?" she demanded

"He killed Nick didn't he, he's the bastard who did it isn't he!" Locks shouted back.

Still holding Locks against the wall, Ziva turned around and looked at Tony who nodded in reply. Tony walked over her and took Locks of her hands, pushing him down a corridor towards their temporary quarters. Ziva went over to Palmer and took Tucker off him.

"Good work Palmer, Thank you" she told him leading Tucker back towards the Commanders room.

"I figured it out!" Palmer called after her "I figured out how he was killed, McCormack was definitely murdered"

She continued walking, pushing Tucker past the Commander and into his room. "Thankyou Palmer." She smiled, turning to Commander Sharp "I would like to ask this man some questions and I am going to use your room if you don't mind." Without waiting for a reply, she followed Tucker into the room, closing the door behind her.

The Commander stared at the door blankly, then looking up at Palmer, "Is NCIS always like this?" he asked crossly.

Palmer chuckled and ran his hand through his hair "Yeah, just wait until you meet their boss"


End file.
